Ningji takes over Haagen-Dazs stores in China, high-end ice cream business gets a new start with new ownership.

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Haagen-Dazs' store business in China has finally found a new buyer.

On June 1, US time, General Mills officially announced that it has reached a final agreement to sell the Chinese mainland Haagen-Dazs store business to an investor group that includes Ningji.

The buyer will obtain exclusive licensing of the Haagen-Dazs brand in the ice cream store and gift business in Chinese mainland. The transaction is expected to complete within 2026. General Mills will retain Haagen-Dazs' retail and foodservice channel business in China.

Haagen-Dazs was once a representative of high-end ice cream consumption in the previous generation in China. Through stores, gift vouchers, and holiday marketing, it transformed ice cream from a quick snack into dating, gifting, and social consumption.

But in recent years, this model has become increasingly unsustainable. Currently, Haagen-Dazs’ stores in mainland China have been reduced from nearly 600 at its peak to around 200.

Haagen-Dazs' brand still holds value, but in China, stores require faster product updates, more flexible pricing systems, and stronger delivery and local marketing abilities. For a multinational food company, continuing to directly manage an offline store network is no longer the most effortless business.

From Ningji's perspective, though this is a significant leap, it fits its multi-brand operation strategy.

As early as 2023, there were reports that Ningji intended to acquire beverage brands and upstream and downstream industries to form an "N-brand strategy," ultimately creating a beverage management group.

By 2024, Ningji founder Wang Jie gave more specific standards in an interview: all beverage-related projects will be considered, such as coconut water, yogurt, light milk tea, as well as supply chain enterprises including sugar, tea, packaging materials; ideally, the target has already completed its 0-to-1 stage, has a basic model established, is recognized by consumers, and its valuation is within what Ningji can bear.

The possibilities brought by this cooperation may mainly stem from three points: supply chain procurement, franchisee resources, and localized operations.

Given the intensity of industry competition and absolute scale of leading brands, most brands hit a ceiling before reaching ten thousand stores.

At present, Ningji stores have surpassed 3,000, mainly concentrated in central, eastern, and southwest regions of China. For Ningji, a second brand can offer existing franchisees new opportunities to open stores and alleviate boundary pressure of single brand expansion.

Meanwhile, Ningji’s experience in ready-made beverages, delivery, social media promotion, and launching youth-focused products may also help Haagen-Dazs get rid of its past over-reliance on high-end stores and gift vouchers.

This summer, the popularity of ice cream continues to spread in the freshly made tea beverage industry.

On one end, Mixue Bingcheng has pulled the category back to extreme cost performance with low-priced ice cream; on the other end, Gelato, handmade ice cream, and dessert-style beverages are constantly competing for young people's instant experience scenarios.

Haagen-Dazs' most awkward position lies in that it is neither as affordable as Mixue nor as fresh as new-style Gelato; it has the burden of a high-end brand, but lacks sufficiently frequent product updates.

If Ningji can restructure Haagen-Dazs' pricing tiers, store efficiency, and consumption scenarios, this deal may become a new sample of localized operation for foreign consumer brands.

But if it only inherits a shell of a high-end brand, the old problems in Haagen-Dazs stores will still be left for Ningji to slowly digest.

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